Bulletin Board

Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle

Published
5:30 am CDT, Thursday, April 26, 2001

SOFTWARE

MP3 Maker 2.0 Gold -- $35, Magix. As digital music becomes more popular -- along with writable CD drives that let you make audio discs -- there are a growing number of software titles that let users create and manage music files. MP3 Maker is a kind of Swiss-army knife approach, letting users do everything from "ripping" audio CDs to MP3 and other file formats, to managing a library of files, to burning your own CDs. With new features added, it begins to rival the reigning king of this category, Roxio's Easy CD Creator 5. Like Easy CD Creator, you can now burn MP3s onto audio discs without first converting them to WAV files. It also can handle the exporting of Microsoft's WMA file format. The interface is slick but still makes it easy to find the most-used features. MP3 Maker also comes with an audio editor that lets you add effects to music and sound files, such as reverb and echo.

Photoshop Elements -- $99, Adobe. A deft blend of powerful graphics-manipulation tools and extraordinary help features makes Adobe's latest bid for the consumer photo hobbyist market a must-have for those serious enough to learn a few well-coached techniques. Photoshop Elements replaces Photoshop LE as the company's flagship consumer offering. This software, available for both Windows and Macintosh computers, offers a simplified version of the Photoshop toolbar and an opening screen that lets users open an existing image, create a new one, acquire one from a camera or scanner and take a superb tutorial of picture-tweaking techniques. Cropping an image is a total cakewalk with this help. So is calling up tools for backlighting and fill-flash to improve images that aren't properly exposed.

HARDWARE

SharkPort -- $30, InterAct Accessories. Because Sony's PlayStation2 only teases us with hard drive and Internet capabilities while delivering neither, InterAct Accessories fills a nagging void with SharkPort. Essentially a custom link cable bundled with GameShark software, SharkPort allows gamers to connect the PS2 to a PC through the USB ports found on both devices. SharkPort opens up the wide world of game save files and the rampant flood of cheat codes floating around cyberspace, accessed and shared through publisher Web sites, fan sites and e-mail. Better still, PS2 gamers no longer need to purchase multiple PS2 memory cards -- each costing more than SharkPort itself -- as files on a single card can now port to the PC for archive purposes while the original files are erased to make more room.